RFI 25-26_17 C&T testing and proctoring.pdf

STATE OF FLORIDA

DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Property Tax Oversight (PTO) Certification & Training (C&T) Testing and Proctoring

RFI # 25/26-17, PTO C&T Testing and Proctoring

1) INTRODUCTION

This is a Request for Information (RFI) as defined in s. 287.012(22), F.S., for informational and planning purposes only.

This RFI is issued by the State of Florida, Department of Revenue (FDOR), Property Tax Oversight (Program) to solicit information regarding the products and services described herein. All interested vendors are invited to participate by submitting a written response to the RFI in accordance with Section 8) RFI Submission.

2) BACKGROUND

The Florida Department of Revenue’s Property Tax Oversight (PTO) Program is statutorily required to conduct schools to upgrade assessment skills and collection skills to Florida’s property appraisers and tax collectors. These “schools” are certification and recertification courses which require assessment of students’ comprehension via online exams. The exams are monitored for test-taker integrity by human, real-time, proctors.

To plan for upcoming procurements, the program is seeking to gather knowledge of services available in the current market for the provision of these types of services, related services, and/or desirable options. Please see Section 5) Objective for desired specifications.

3) PURPOSE OF AN RFI

a. Rule Per Rule 60A-1.042, FAC, Agencies are authorized to use a Request for Information (RFI) for research to determine any or all of the following:

• whether to competitively procure particular commodities or contractual services;

• which solicitation process to use for a particular need;

• or general, special, or technical specifications to be included in a solicitation.

An RFI is not a solicitation. An agency issuing an RFI is not required to utilize any information gathered from the RFI, nor is a vendor who responds to an RFI excluded from participating in any resulting solicitation.

Agencies must use the Vendor Information Portal (VIP) for issuing an RFI. A vendor does not need to be registered in MFMP in order to respond to an RFI but must be registered to be awarded a contract based on a solicitation. See Rule 60A-1.033, F.A.C., for MFMP vendor registration.

b. Constraints This RFI is being released strictly for the purpose of gaining knowledge of services available in the market for the provision of these services, related services, and desirable options.

https://floridarevenue.com/property/Pages/Home.aspx https://floridarevenue.com/property/Pages/Home.aspx

This RFI should not be construed as an intent, commitment, or promise to acquire or purchase the proposed services presented by vendors.

The FDOR will not be obligated to any vendor because of this RFI. The FDOR is not obligated for any costs incurred by vendors in the preparation of their response to this RFI. The FDOR will not pay for any information herein requested nor be liable for any costs incurred by the vendor.

From the responses to this RFI, the FDOR will review all options related to the services specified, related services, and desired options.

4) QUALIFICATIONS

There are no qualifications for vendors to respond to this RFI. Should a formal solicitation be released after analysis of service availability in the marketplace, there will be qualifications required for any vendor to be awarded a contract, including but not limited to:

• being registered with the State of Florida, Department of Management Services, through the MyFloridaMarketPlace e-procurement system;

• being registered with the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Corporations, to do business in Florida;

5) OBJECTIVE

The FDOR is seeking information from vendors who can provide the following services, related services, and/or desirable options.

a. Online testing hosting platform

• Ability to integrate with live proctoring service.

• Ability to host training content.

• Ability to setup sequential learning experiences.

• Customizable certificates

• Self-registration option

• Ability to setup user groups

• Secure platform

• Customizable email templates/automated messaging

• Multiple question types (T/F, Multiple Choice, etc.)

• Test item analysis and customizable reporting

• Ability to restrict progression

• Ability to set up pre-requisites

• Ability to host multiple media types (must support PDF, MP3, MP4, JPEG, JPG, PNG, TIF, TIFF, GIF, SVG, MOV, SWF, FLV, HTML5)

• Have question banks (for using across multiple tests)

• Ability to randomize test questions AND randomize answer choices in each question

• Ability to assign content based on user group

• Ability to export reports (pdf and xlsx)

• Ability to bulk rescore tests and bulk send results

• Ability to restrict test results from being shown

• Provide email/phone technical support for administrators

b. Online human based, real-time exam proctoring

• Scheduled and On-Demand exam options

• Test-taker pay, and Department pay options

• Proctoring is available 24/7, 365 days a year with required booked appointments

• Appointments scheduled at a minimum of 72 hours in advance

• Changes to appointment dates may be made without charge if they are made more than 24 hours in advance

• Test-takers are not assigned proctors until test time to increase integrity

• Test-takers will be required to take exams on laptop or desktop computers only; with microphone, speakers and webcam enabled.

• Test-takers will have the opportunity to check their computer’s connection and system requirements prior to exam start

• Test-takers will have live access to technical support via chat box 24/7, 365 days a year

• Proctor present with test-taker within five minutes of connection

• Proctor verifies identity of test-taker with government issued ID

• Proctor verifies environment is secure

• Proctor continuously monitors test-taker throughout the exam checking for potential deception as per TBD standards

• Document incidents/disqualify as per TBD standards

• Report incidents within 12 hours

• Proctoring sessions are to be recorded

• FDOR access to test metrics, reports, proctor notes, recordings, and photos, as per TBD standards

• Provide email/phone technical support for administrators

c. (Optional) In-person testing hosting at vendor testing center with human based, real-time exam proctoring

• Ability to integrate with online testing platform, as described in 4.1, on computers located at vendor testing center

• Proctoring available during normal State of Florida business hours with required booked appointments

• Appointments scheduled at a minimum of TBD hours in advance

• Changes to appointment dates may be made without charge if they are made more than TBD hours in advance

• Test-takers will have in-person technical support by proctor

• Proctor verifies identity with government issued ID

• Proctor continuously monitors test-taker throughout the exam checking for potential deception as per TBD standards

• Document incidents/disqualify as per TBD standards

• Proctoring rooms to be recorded

• FDOR access to test metrics, reports, proctor notes, recordings, and photos, as per TBD standards

6) VENDOR QUESTIONS/INQUIRIES

Written questions/inquiries concerning this RFI will only be accepted if submitted in writing via email to the FDOR’s Procurement Officer identified in Section 8 and if received on or before the date and time specified in the Calendar of Events, Section 7.

Interested parties shall examine the FDOR’s requirements to determine if they are clearly stated. The FDOR also wishes to determine if any requirements are restrictive to competition. The party claiming that there is a restrictive requirement should identify and describe the difficulty in meeting the FDOR’s requirement.

Responses to all questions received will be made available, in writing, and posted on the Vendor Information Portal on or about the anticipated date referenced in the Calendar of Events.

7) CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Listed below are the important actions and the dates and times by which the actions must be taken or completed. If the FDOR finds it necessary to change any of these dates/times, it will be accomplished by addendum and posted on the VIP.

All listed times are local time in Tallahassee, Florida.

DATE TIME ACTION

November 4, 2025 Release of RFI on VIP.

November 12, 2025 No later than

12:00 PM ET

Submittal of vendor written questions and inquiries.

November 18, 2025 On or about Anticipated date that written responses to vendor questions and inquiries will be posted to the VIP.

December 1, 2025 No later than

12:00 PM ET

Vendor response due date.

8) RFI SUBMISSION

Utilize the General Questions Matrix in Attachment 1 to submit your response. Copies of these are available in Microsoft Excel format by request to the Procurement Officer identified below. Documentation supporting responses to the services requested in this RFI may be added to the response.

Provide the Pricing Methodology Information listed in Attachment 2.

You may provide suggestions for other services and provide input as it relates to the FDOR’s anticipated needs in Attachment 3 - Additional Information – Industry Trends, Innovations, Products, Services, or Best Practices.

Vendors should submit their responses to the RFI, along with any additional documentation via email to:

Ed Valla, Procurement Officer

Florida Department of Revenue Phone: (850) 717-7567 Email: Edwin.Valla@floridarevenue.com

Include “RFI # 25/26-17, PTO C&T Testing and Proctoring” in the subject line of the email.

Vendors may submit a separate redacted copy of their response if the response includes proprietary information. Please review Section 9) a. (Proprietary Information) for requirements and submission information.

9) DISCLAIMERS

a. Proprietary Information mailto:Edwin.Valla@floridarevenue.com

Due regard will be given for the protection of proprietary information contained in all submissions received. However, respondents should be aware that all materials associated with the RFI are subject to the state’s open records law, Chapter 119, Florida Statutes.

If a vendor considers any portion of the answers, supporting documents, data or records submitted in response to this RFI to be confidential, proprietary, trade secret or otherwise not subject to disclosure pursuant to Chapter 119, F.S., the Florida Constitution or other authority, such information shall be clearly marked as “CONFIDENTIAL.”

The vendor or implementation partner must simultaneously provide the FDOR with a separate, redacted copy of its response. The redacted response shall:

• Be provided in an electronic format (preferably Excel);

• Briefly describe, in writing, the grounds for claiming each exemption from public records law, including the specific statutory citation for such exemption;

• Only exclude, obliterate, or redact those exact portions which are claimed confidential, proprietary, trade secret, or otherwise exempt.

The non-redacted response will be distributed, as determined necessary and appropriate by the FDOR, for the purposes of evaluation.

An entire page or paragraph in which such information appears should not be marked confidential unless the entire page or paragraph consists of such confidential information. Vendors are to indicate where confidential information begins and ends.

Vendor and implementation partners shall protect, defend, and indemnify the State for any and all claims arising from or relating to the vendor’s determination that the redacted portions of its RFI are confidential, proprietary, trade secret, or otherwise not subject to disclosure.

If the vendor fails to submit a redacted copy of its response to the RFI, vendor agrees that the FDOR is authorized to produce the entire set of documents, data or records submitted by the vendor in answer to a public records request for these records.

Copyrighted material will be accepted as part of the RFI only if accompanied by a waiver that will allow the FDOR to make paper and electronic copies necessary for the use of FDOR staff, agents, and public record requests.

b. RFI – Planning purposes only The FDOR is requesting submissions in response to this RFI for informational and planning purposes only and is not obligated in any way to use any of the information received. This RFI process is intended to help the FDOR research a variety of available services so the FDOR may determine the best strategy for the State. Submissions received in response to this RFI will be used to determine whether a formal solicitation should be issued. The FDOR reserves the right to use the information gathered through the RFI process to develop a scope of services which may be incorporated into a solicitation using a statutorily approved method of procurement.

Responses to an RFI are not offers and shall not be accepted by the FDOR to form a binding contract. Further, the FDOR is not seeking proposals at this time and will not accept unsolicited proposals. Responding to this RFI will not enhance any respondent’s chances of receiving future work from the State. Similarly, not responding to this RFI will not be a detriment to any respondent when competing for future work. This RFI should not be considered an opportunity to market to the FDOR or to any entity of the State of Florida. Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI.

All RFI submissions become the property of the State of Florida. The FDOR will not be providing feedback regarding the quality or suitability of the respondent’s submission to any subsequent solicitations. The FDOR may, however, contact individual respondents for clarification of information contained in the submission.

ATTACHMENT 3

Additional Information – Industry Trends, Innovations, Products, Services, or Best Practices

On a separate sheet, in .pdf format, please provide information on any industry trends, innovations, services, best practices, or suggestions for other functionality that you feel may be of interest to the FDOR in meeting its stated objectives.

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